Mum who made a different meal every day of the year... to stop her children being fussy eaters
FED up with teatime battles with her four fussy offspring, Beverley Haigh decided enough was enough.
Determined to get them eating a more healthy and varied diet, she set herself a daunting challenge last New Year’s Eve – to cook a different meal every day for a year.
And over 300 recipes later, the busy theatre marketing assistant has stuck to her word.
Since making the resolution, she has broadened the tastes of Cinnamon, 13, Lucas, ten, Mathilde, eight, and Jude, two, with recipes ranging from spicy curries to orzo pasta salad.
Last night Mrs Haigh, 41, from Meltham, West Yorkshire, said: ‘The idea came about last year – we all sat around the table as a family on New Year’s Eve and made our resolutions and I decided I was going to cook a different meal for us all to eat every single day.
‘My two eldest children are fantastic eaters and when Mathilde was a baby she was great as well.
‘But then she reached about the age of two and just stopped eating overnight. The challenge was really borne out of trying to broaden her tastes and stop her being so fussy.
‘I was sick of cooking the same recipes – usually involving pasta and baked beans, sometimes in the same dish – all the time, so set myself this crazy challenge.
‘It’s been hard, especially when I’m working or we’ve decided to go away for the weekend and I’ve had to come up with a recipe while juggling daily life at the same time. But it’s been really good fun as well.’
Mrs Haigh has chronicled her battle in a blog, 365 Meals, which she hopes will inspire other parents.
Keen to avoid processed foods, over the year she has come up with some inventive ideas, including waterzooi – a Belgian chicken or fish stew which Mrs Haigh adapted using tofu – cannellini bean pate and Indian chickpea curry.
While most of the family are vegetarian, her eldest son and her sales manager partner, Paul Waddington, 44, both eat meat – which added to the challenge.
Some of the more unusual dishes, such as hummus spaghetti and cheese empanadas, have been a massive hit, but others have been less popular.
‘Sometimes I’ve made things that are really simple and they have hated them,’ Mrs Haigh admitted. ‘Mathilde doesn’t really like Quorn, so I remember one shepherd’s pie that went down very badly.
‘But other dishes that are really unusual, and you wonder if they are going to like them, have gone down really well.
‘For example, Lucas was doing his homework one day and had to research food from other countries, so I made us all an Argentinian lentil stew, which they loved.’
However, Mrs Haigh confessed that she sometimes told the children the odd white lie, such as referring to the cranberry sauce which accompanies her deepfried brie as jam, to get them to eat without a fuss.
‘The challenge has definitely made us all eat healthier,’ she added. ‘Even Paul, who is a meat eater, thinks he’s benefited from it.’
On whether she is going to carry on her challenge in 2018, she said: ‘I think I’ll continue into January then assess what has worked and been popular and plan our meals from there.’